Transexuals in Prison- Caroline Christy

Transsexual Individuals in Prison

By: Caroline Christy

            The main reason why I was interested in this topic is because recently I have been avoiding doing my homework by watching this new Netflix series called “Orange is the New Black” and on there one of the characters was born a man but had the surgery and now is a women. During the show the prison soon cuts back her estrogen intake which then entails her to start going through the equivalent of menopause and causes her to start having some male like tendencies and features reappear, such as facial hair. This made me interested in others who are in prison that are transsexual, I wonder what the law is like for them and if they can still receive their hormone treatments. The law states that those who have not had genital surgery are classified according to their birth sex, no matter how long they have lived as a member of the other sex they get put with “their own”, and those who have received the surgery are classified according to their reassigned sex. The reason that the transgender members who haven’t received the surgery go with their birth sex is because they are at great risk for being abused or taken advantage of. As for the hormone treatment they are allowed the amount that was maintained before being incarcerated. The prisons do provide hormones but there is no guarantee that it will be the right amount, or the right amount of counseling to go along with the hormone treatment. [1]

            Many people are unaware of the rising issue for transgender in prison. There have been many court cases that once were going in favor of the prison, [2] but more recently have been in the favor of those transgender who are in prison. [3] As of right now the prison does not pay for reassignment surgery, but the transgender community is trying to work towards that. However Republican Sen. Scot Brown does not agree that is a good idea calling it and “outrageous abuse of tax payers dollars.” Democrat Elizabeth Warren said, “ I have to say, I don’t think it’s a good use of tax payers dollars.”

http://tranifesto.com/2012/09/06/the-michelle-kosilek-decision/

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Cook-County-Jail-works-on-transgender-policies-/42906.html

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[1] See Rosenblum, supra note 62, at 545.

[2] See Maggert v. Hanks, 131 F.3d 670, Long v. Nix, 86 F. 3d 761, Meriwether v. Faulkner, 821 F.2d 408, Jones v. Flannigan, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29606

[3] South v. Gomez, 211 F.2d 1275, 2000, Cf. Wolf v. Horn, 130 F.